I was thinking about the printing industry and the huge market which has developed and grown around it during the last century. I mean the printing production companies (packaging, sheet and web fed), the publishers (of any kind), the paper suppliers, the suppliers of chemical products (inks and all the rest), of consumables, of heavy machineries, the technology providers, the software providers, the providers of the many many existing services, the creative agencies and so on. It’s a whole world.
The new way of publishing, experiencing and consuming valuable content distributed online - not on paper - has open the debate whether the printing industry and the printed paper will survive this secular shift within the business. It’s not hard to guess that the forecasts aren’t optimistic.
However I’d like to add my two cents to the debate. I do believe that we will still continue to print on paper (digitally, sheet or web fed) variable data, commercial and advertising content, packaging, labels, flyers, calendars, etc. I have no doubt about that. Is it going to be the paper as we know it since centuries or is it going to be a different kind of paper ...? I don’t know. Just have a look to the embedded video to better understand my point.
Who will survive this massive cultural shift? I think those companies that will transform the market and those that will transform themselves to adapt to the new market. To me the real value of the debate isn’t whether the printed paper will survive, but rather the fact that many existing companies will close down their business well before the pulpwood paper will eventually disappear.
To avoid the (personal and social) disaster of shutting a business down because it wasn’t spent any effort trying to identify a good strategy, I’d suggest to think about that: “the freedom we enjoy and we live implies that in each and every decision we make (in our professional and personal life) there is always a new begin”. Within this spirit, innovation becomes a natural outcome of the new begin that exists in every decision we take.
I believe those entrepreneurs that have chosen “not to decide to be safe” should rediscover their courage because after all, what we’ll find tomorrow after this big secular shift will be exactly what we have built today. This crisis it’s a blessing if we manage to rethink, to reimagine and to reinvent our world. The beauty is that each one of us has really the power to make that change: people just need to be aware of this incredible power.
I already published a post about the evolution of the current communication model. With today's new post, I'd like to add a new component to the ever evolving picture of the communication as we know it today.
To fully enhance the success of the new Communication 3.0 model and the new paradigme (page elements and contents are detached from the page structure and the page styles) it is of paramount importance to implement a consistent Content Management strategy.
Companies today should have a clear and efficient digital content management strategy in place: it’s a powerful leverage that helps to consolidate the business and to increase the competitive edge on the market.
The ability to effectively manage and to efficiently deliver content simultaneously on any kind of media and device, is going to be the key factor for success in the new media market.
The future of the graphic arts, the printing industry, the media services has never been so hard to foreseen. It’s not just about the rapid technology development, the global economy situation, the deep social and cultural changes and many others valid factors. For a number of companies I think there is a factor playing an important role: many of them are simply missing a vision on fundamental strategic issues.
Currently the discussion about how long the paper will survive the new technology is very active on online and printed articles, events, round tables. I personally hate this kind of useless discussions which are reminding me something very similar about the “supposed death of paper” when the web exploded some 15 years ago.
I believe the challenge here is different: it’s not about how long the paper will survive, but rather how many companies will close down before the paper - lets suppose for one second - will disappear. We will still need paper for a while as we have needed until today, with the exeption of printed newspapers and magazines because news and information have become a new experience which goes beyond the printed page.
Starting from a truly customer oriented vision, there are in my opinion few strategic issues that could be helpful to a graphic industry, a printing company or a book or magazine publisher.
Lets try to summarize:
Have you adopted a content management strategy which allows effective business processes, optimized efficiency when creating, using and distributing content on every media channel? The content management strategy is a very powerful leverage that fully supports the organization to reach its business objectives.
Have you integrated your production and business workflows within a JDF environment? This can offer the final customer a great product and service experience, while the company can take advantage from the increased efficiency of all its internal processes.
Have you ever considered to start a Lean Six Sigma project? There are many useful tools in this great methodology that help to create a culture of continuous improvement of processes and quality, by eliminating wastes, non value added activities, hidden costs and inefficiencies. Please don’t think about how much a Lean Six Sigma project could cost, but rather how much could be the cost for your company of not doing it.
I hope these three questions can help to trigger useful reflection on how to find a constructive way to consolidate your competitive edge on the market.
It was my first time at the Digital Printing Froum in Milano 2. It has been a very interesting event proposing a wide range of opportunities for communication companies, digital printers, DM operators, service providers to directly meet many technology providers. This year the event celebrates the 16th edition with a First Class organization level.
I have been invited to the round table dedicated to innovation within the editorial market, new media and future strategies. In summary, among the many social, economical, technological factors influencing and driving the market, I emphasized that in Italy I have seen a large number of companies without a clear content management strategy. This is mainly due to the fact that they think content management is a technical issue which must be solved within ICT department rather than a real strategic leverage supporting the business growth.
In my opinion the crucial point is that today "content is King" more than ever. If a company has set up the appropriate content management strategy, supported by the right technological infrastructure, will have no problem using the content which today is printed on paper (product catalogue, magazine, newspaper) and tomorrow will be distributed on web sites, social media, e-Book readers, tablets, smart phones. It does not matter the kind of company: printer, graphic industry, book publisher, new media, newspaper and magazine publisher or even industry and services because content, at the most granular level, is just about text, image, sound and video file formats.
If companies have all structured new processes to manage, to share and to distribute any content from one unique system or platform like censhare, they will have "less" problems when printed orders will start to decrease. They will surely be able to compensate the loss of the printed volume providing new services to their customers. This is how in my opinion, graphic industries will become in the future "content distributors" and newspapers or magazine editors will become more like "marketing companies". I suggest the reading of this article published on 2009 on the Harward Business Review. Media Companies Need To Become Marketing Companies.
I am very grateful to the organizers for the opportunity to be present and to live such a rich experience.
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